Thursday, December 19, 2013

Last weekend was our annual bus trip to a Christmas Market with Ludi's parents. Every year it's a different city (well, mostly. We've been to Brussels' Christmas market twice now!), and this year the buses took us to Gent, Belgium. It's a nice town, with very old buildings and a quaint little Christmas market! A few photos...

totally didn't take notes, no idea what building this is, but it's pretty!

again...not a clue

That was a slide, going around the lighthouse. Cool!

Wish this was in focus

sparkle sparkle

I hope you're enjoying your holiday season so far. It's hard to believe, but it's less than a week until Christmas! Crazy.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

I have a huge list of post ideas. Huge. I wonder why I don't post more often?

Anyways, here's a little catch up post. We went on vacation in September. 3 weeks after we moved, we left for 2 1/2 weeks. It was great to leave all the boxes behind.

and live out of a suitcase.

We went to the US (of course), starting off our holiday with a few days at my aunt's house in Glenwood, Maryland. She lives very close to Washington, DC, so we spent the day in the nation's capital. We took a bus tour - the kind where you can get on and off the bus at your own pace in any number of different spots. It even had an open top, so you could really see the sites!

The Capital Building

The Washington Monument (it's not crooked in real life. I'm the crooked one.)

reflection of the Washington monument in the Vietnam War Memorial

a squirrel taking a drink on the mall (near the war memorials)

We had a really good time there, and it was even better to get to see my aunt (she's a great cook and host!) and most of her family again. It's been too many years to count since I've seen them.

The yarn above is SO soft and SO yummy and SO luscious. It's the first time I've ever worked with alpaca (I think?), and I am hooked. I wish there was an alpaca farm near me here that I could go visit. And volunteer! Just so I can be near this yummylicious yarn.

I've made mittens from that yarn, by the way. I'll save that for another post.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Oh my gosh, tomorrow is Thanksgiving! Bring on the turkey! The stuffing! The mashed potatoes! The gravy! The parade!

Bring on the bloated, too-stuffed-to-move feeling, too.

Netherlands doesn't have a Thanksgiving, but we'll do a little mini-dinner on Sunday with Ludi's parents. I'm only making a turkey breast. Some people here seem to think that a whole turkey is too much. Ha, I say to them.

They've no idea how much turkey I can eat.

Regardless of my abilities to devour tons of the stuff, we're not doing a whole turkey. It'll still be delicious, I'm sure! Will the weather be decent enough where you are to start putting up lights outside over the weekend? We used to do that in my house. Decorate outside this weekend before it got too cold to be out there comfortably. Anyone else do that? Or do you just leave the lights up all year round? *wink*

We were having nice weather here last week. We've had a pretty decent fall this year. We had some rain, but there were some glorious days too. The colors of the leaves were fantastic. The trees in the neighborhood park were so pretty I stopped and stared a few times. I'm pretty sure the other people walking around the park thought I was goofy. But then again, I think they always think I'm goofy.

Goofy American.

There was a tree that I could see from our dining room window that was the same bright yellow. This picture barely does it justice.

late season fall color

The tree is on the street behind us, so I could only see the top of it. But when the sun hit it just right, the thing just glowed. (See? Terrible picture. That's not even close to glowing.) I enjoyed it for about a week before the leaves finally started falling. I'm not sure what kind of tree it was, but they stuck around for quite a while before finally giving up the fight.

And now it's all gray and cold and the leaves are gone. It's barely 4 and it's too dark to knit without a light on. How sad is that? Remember when it was light out at 10:00 p.m.? Yeah.

That's alright. Christmas lights show up better in the dark. tee hee!!!

I hope that everyone enjoys their turkey tomorrow! And get that decorating started!

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Ok, enough slacking, it’s the middle of November already! Good grief! Usually August, September and October drag by for me, seemingly taking forever. The wait for Halloween is a long one. But after that, it’s like you’re on a downhill roller coaster. The days FLY by speeding their way to Christmas. The day/season that I wait for all year. But this year, July-October FLEW by. We were so busy! We had a vacation at the end of September just 3 weeks after moving. And the MOVING...ugh. It’s still kicking my ass. Which means I don’t have any ta-da photos yet. They might have to wait till Christmas photos. I am determined that at least the living room will be boxless for Christmas.

I’ve got my work cut out for me. Gah, how do two adults collect so much STUFF?! Trying to figure out where to put everything in an organized manner is taking longer than I planned/wanted. I think it will be a work-in-progress for some time to come. But we’re adjusting to the new place quite easily. I’m getting used to not having everything I need within 10 feet of me anymore (kidding - the old place wasn’t THAT small, but almost). Getting used to having an upstairs and downstairs. This place is so much bigger. It’s fantastic to have more space! Like Ludi's sister said, we can waltz in our bedroom. It's huge! We love it!

I do miss the old neighborhood a little bit. I miss being so close to the neighborhood shopping center. I don’t really miss the neighbors though. The barking dogs. The seemingly constant coming and going of loud motor scooters. When I walk back to that neighborhood, I get a little nostalgic. We lived there for 5 1/2 years. It’s hard to not get a little attached after that long.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Stuffed animals. Makes it sound like I’m 12 or something. Stuffed Decorative Pieces. There we go. Sounds way more adult, yes?

So how many Stuffed Decorative Pieces can you stuff into one box?

18.

And yup, there's nothing else in the box.

2. We just had a painting marathon weekend. The hottest weekend of the year. The second day was the worst. We sweated buckets. I thought I was going to die. I didn’t have a thermostat to check the actual temperature, but it was HOT. It was an upstairs bedroom, and with it being 98 or thereabouts outside, you can imagine how warm it was inside. But it’s done! The painting is done for now. I am so happy that I don’t have to clean out those brushes and roller again. YAY! And the paint looks better than the original stuff that was on the walls too!

3. I got my hair cut. I got probably 3 inches cut off? 4, maybe? Not sure. But it’s just above my shoulders now. Short and sassy. I liked having longer hair, but I never did anything with it. I could never make it look how I wanted it to look, and I never wanted to invest the time in doing that anyways. I love how other people look with long wavy hair, beach hair, whatever you want to call it, but it just never looked right on me. Or, more accurately, I couldn’t make it look right. So it’s shorter now. And cooler for summer heat.

4. The Moving Process is coming along very slowly. As I mentioned before, painting is done for now. The flooring will be installed on Friday (yay! I can’t wait to see that!), and then we can really start moving things over. Thankfully it will be cooler weather this weekend. (I do plan on doing a little before and after post. Any bets on if I actually follow through?)

5. Because of all the moving chores, I haven't been knitting. It's been at least 4 days since I picked any needles and yarn up. Can you believe it? Me? Not knitting? Can't wait until we're done, so that I can knit again. I have another scarf to make before vacation at the end of September.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

I fell off the face of the Earth for a while, that’s where I’ve been. July was so busy with family things (three birthdays, and a family getaway (the entire family! 11 of us!) in Germany for Ludi’s parent’s 50th wedding anniversary - Go go Mia & Louis!). The entire month just flew by. And now we’re in August. And it’s flying too! Thankfully, because I think August is my least favorite month. Something about the heat, I guess.

There are a couple of reasons that this month is flying. At the beginning of the month (well, actually starting July 27), I was part of Team Owlie 2012 doing the Ravellenic Games. It was a knitting contest with Ravelry that coincided with the Olympics. So all during the Olympics I was working on knitting projects that had to be finished by the end of the official games. I just barely made it (I’m a slow knitter). Here is what I made!

another Frangiflutti (made for Mom’s friend Judy)

more popcorns! Now I have 46 total. (made for me!)

When you post your finished project, you get a “medal” and everything (a photo of one made by someone at Ravelry. Not a photo of an actual Olympic medal. That might infringe on copyright, right? *wink*) I was worried that I wasn’t going to finish them, because while all this was going on, we

SIGNED A CONTRACT ON A NEW PLACE!!!!! A rental, but still! We’re moving! YESSSS!!! It’s a much bigger place, which is so needed. Three bedrooms, as opposed to our 1 1/2 here. (I call it a 1/2 a bedroom because it’s so freaking small. A single bed barely fits in there.) Just so much more room. And no upstairs neighbors! YES! Even better. Can’t wait to move in.

The month has been filled with appointments with repair men, picking paint and flooring, buying paint and flooring, cleaning, etc. The rest of the month will be filled with packing and moving. It’s going to be quite a haul to get ourselves moved in time, but we’ve got to do it. We have a deadline. So we’ve gotta be out of here completely by August 30th.

And I keep looking at everything that still needs packed (everything, basically).

About Me

I am an American living in The Netherlands, and thanks for visiting! I would love it if you left a comment so I know you were here (what you liked (or didn't like), or what you would like to read more of here on my little pokey blog). Thanks!!